The Other Children
by Ughster
Summary: Jake has a second run in with the bullies form his new school, things start to heat up when he wont take their bullying lightly.
1. Another Run In With The Other Children

"Mark!" Jake called out; the entire family was wandering the streets in search of their runaway brother. He didn't even know where he was going, nobody did but when the time came where someone in the family needed help, everyone knew what they had to do.

Jake swerved passed a corner, calling Mark's name when he heard someone call his name. He skated over to a group of guys and he recognized some of them right away. Two of them were the kids that he and Mike got into a fight with for picking on Mark; they were with 3 other guys, bigger and older guys.

"I see you and your family fights together, so does mine" One of the boys said and out of nowhere one of the older kids threw a punch and landed it on Jake's left cheek. Jake stumbled backwards with his left eye closed so one of the bigger guys grabbed his shirt and held Jake close to him.

Jake tried to release the grip on his shirt but the man wound his free arm back and began striking Jake in the face. After 5 blows Jake felt the blood pouring from his mouth and nose but he didn't stop. He would have fallen over by now but the man was holding Jake's shirt, holding him in striking range. After a while the assaulter let Jake fall to the ground head first as he and one of the two boys from school began kicking Jake. Kicks were landed on his stomach as he heard his ribs crack; kicks were landed on his face as Jake's vision was getting blurry.

One of the boys from school grabbed Jake's skate board and swung it at his knee. Jake screamed but not long enough to be heard, with every blow it was harder to scream. A few minutes after one of the guys grabbed Jake by his back collar and held Jake's head toward the boy with the skate board. Jake looked up at him in terror as the boy wound the skate board back behind his shoulder and swung it at Jake's head. Jake's cheek bone was struck by the metal part of the board between the wheels as he fell over barley conscious as the group of assaulters walked away.

Jake lay on his back on the side of the street for a few minutes with his eyes slammed shut, breathing hard. Eventually he rolled over on his stomach and tried to stand by his right leg wasn't strong enough to hold his weight. Jake through his left leg forward while he was on his right knee and forced himself up. He looked down at ground and watched his blood drip down his face onto the concrete.

Jake limped over to pick up his hat and was fortunate enough that the bullies left his skateboard on the ground. He was in no condition to skateboard back to his house so he carried it as he slowly made his way back. He was approaching the front yard when Sarah caught a glimpse of him from down the street and came running.

"Jake, what's up? You find anything?" she called as she came running towards him but slowed down as she got a better view of her brother.

"Jake what happened?" Sarah questioned in a bit of a panic

"I….fell off my skate board" He answered, he didn't want her or anyone to know what had happened. It was partially because he didn't want them to worry but also because he felt that if they knew then he would seem weaker.

"Fell off your skateboard? What did you take a trip to the skate park?"

"My skateboard caught something while I was going down a hill looking for Mark. I'm fine, you should go back to look for him Ill catch up." He assured her, she didn't buy it but for now she needed to help find Mark so she ran off.

Jake tried his hardest to rush to the bathroom and clean himself up before his parents saw how bad it was, he looked in the mirror and was shocked at how beaten up he looked. He just stared into the mirror, disappointed in himself that he could let this happen to him. He spent about 10 minutes cleaning off the blood and patching up the bruises, it didn't look so bad now but with all the bruises and scraped there was no way to hide the fact that _something_ had happened to him.

He rejoined Sarah, Mike and his mother, Kate, and continued the search for his younger brother, Mark. Eventually Kate got a call from his father, Tom, and said that he found Mark and would meet them all at the train station. Together they got in the car and sped off.

When they arrived at the train station Jake's mother finally got a look at him now that Mark was safe.

"Jake? How did this happen?" She questioned, he usually acquired a few bumps and scraped from skating so much but never this much at the same time.

"I just fell off my skate board" Jake answered as he exchanged a quick glance at Sarah.

"Looks like you need a bit more practice on that thing" Kim teased with her tongue out, Jake just looked at her menacingly and scowled.

"You really should start wearing a helmet mister" Kate scolded

"I don't need a helmet, it wasn't my fault" Jake answered

"Oh, hows that?" his mother questioned suspiciously, Jake paused for a few seconds

"There was something in the street that made me trip that's all, it was just because it was dark out that I didn't see it but since I'm never skating out in the dark it doesn't matter." Jake said; he was satisfied with that excuse and so was his mother who accepted it for now.

When Tom and Mark arrived on a train the entire family ran to greet Mark. Everyone apologized for neglecting him or making fun of him, the family looked like they were reunited and it would stay this way. Tom questioned the bruises on Jake's face but quickly accepted Jake's excuse now realizing what had actually happened. The large family returned home anticipating their lives going back to normal, well as normal as a family with 12 children can possibly be.


	2. A Long Countdown To Home

The next day was a Sunday and Jake spent most of the day either laying in bed or sitting on the couch, his body was incredibly sore and moving anything was very difficult. The rest of the family noticed and thought it was strange how still and calm Jake was acting but decided that the cause was him being out so late.

While in bed Jake thought about what he would do when he saw those two kids at school again, there was no way he was just going to let them beat him up and just walk away. When he made his way downstairs to the couch to watch some TV Kyle and Nigel were already there watching a show that Jake didn't mind watching either.

"What happened to your face?" They both questioned at the same time with look that they were grossed out.

"I fell, its no big deal" he said as he lay down, the twins just went back to their show thinking nothing of it. His day seemed to move by very slowly, he was invited to go board with Sarah or just play with Mike but each time he refused and stayed on the couch. When Sarah was denied she was very suspicious.

The next day officially started the countdown to when the Baker family would get to return to their old home as they still had to finish off the year at this school. Jake got out of the van with Mike and Sarah and they all made their way to the entrance of the school, after a few minutes Jake broke off from their group and found the two boys that beat him up.

As Jake approached the boys they noticed him and began to laugh at all the bruises he had on his face, Jake just walked faster with a mean look on his face and before he knew it he was standing in front of him.

"Geez what happened to you?" One of the boys said while still giggling, Jake just stared at them

"Well this is awkward isn't it, you must want to know our names, Im Frank" Said the blonde haired boy

"Im Chris" said the spikey haired boy

"Do you have a name?" They questioned but Jake gave no answer

"Aw whats the matter, cat got your tongue? What did we hit you so hard that your mouth can't open?" Chris said as they both busted out laughing.

Jake just stared at them laughing at his face, he was gridding his teeth trying to think out what he would do but he couldn't keep his composure. Jake wound his right arm back and punched Chris in the jaw and then tackled Frank with his knee leading the way. Jake slammed his knee on Frank's chest and landed a punch on his face. Jake was winding back to throw more until Chris tackled him as they landed next to Frank, they both had each other in head locks until Frank grabbed Jake's back and threw him backwards. Chris landed on top of Jake with his head now clenched harder on Jake's as Frank kicked side.

Jake used his free hands to grab Frank's foot and pulled him to the ground, Frank spun around and tried to get up but Jake grabbed his arm and bent it the way its not suppose to be bent. Frank was laying on the ground with his arm being twisted by Jake, he used his other arm and started wailing on Jake's face though it only lasted a few seconds as teachers and other adults ran through the crowd of students and pulled each boy off of each other.

Jake was escorted to the principles office; he sat in the chair in the middle of the room with a cloth on his bloodied nose. Before Jake could even reflect on what just happened his mother charged in the office and demanded to know what had happened

"Well if it was two on one then shouldn't the other boys be responsible?" Kate questioned

"Well according to many witness, Jacob here through the first punch and attacked both Christopher and Frank Wheeler so its only natural for them to fight back to defend themselves" As the principle said this Kate just glared at her son who just sank in his seat and rolled his eyes.

After talking for what seemed like forever Jake and his mother were able to leave, the final verdict on the situation was that Jake would be suspended from school for 5 days while the other boys got 2 days each.

"Fighting? Really? I thought we were passed this. I thought that with us moving back to Midland this summer and everything going back to normal that we wouldn't have to deal with this nonsense." Kate scolded her son

"Sorry, they started it though" Jake whined

"Everyone said that you threw the first punch, you couldn't just walk away?" She asked; Jake just shrugged.

"Its not even 9 and you've been suspended; just wait until your father hears about this" She kept going as Jake just rolled his eyes. They were walking down the stairs when the bell rang and the kids were changing classes, on the way out they ran into Sarah.

"Mom what are you doing here?" Sarah questioned

"I have to take Jake here home" She answered

"Dude you sick?" Sarah questioned her brother who was about to answer until his mother cut him off before he could chime in a word

"He has already been suspended for 5 day for fighting with two other students, now Sarah you should get to your class" Kate informed Sarah who gave a puzzled look to Jake and jogged off to her class.

Jake walked out the front doors of the school and made their way to the van, the entire ride home was quiet and awkward. Before coming to Chicago Jake would get in trouble sometimes for either talking or pulling pranks but never for fighting. Kate was very confused and worried about her son's behavior. When they arrived home Kate ordered Jake to go to his room without any TV or games, after Jake was gone she made her way t the kitchen and sat at the table to try and think of what is going through her son's head.


	3. Grounded?

Kate waited to tell Tom about what had happened with Jake until he came home, she wanted to be face to face with him for when they talk about what they will do with him.

Tom didn't get home for a couple more hours after the kids were out of school so she had to deal with 10 questioning kids before even telling her husband.

When Kate arrived home with the kids and Charlie arrived with Lorraine it was hectic, as soon as they entered the house Sarah asked where Jake was but Kate made an announcement that Jake was to stay in his room until their father got home, everyone just shrugged as they were all eager to find out what happened. They had heard rumors around school that Jake got into a fight with the two bullies that he and Mike fought earlier in the year but there were no details on why or how the fight went.

Sarah was the most anxious to figure out what happened to while everyone went about their business counting down the time until they can see Jake, she met up with Mike in the corner of the house and came up with a plan to figure out what happened with Jake beforehand. It was a simple plan but she needed Mike for it to work. Jake had a window in his room that wasn't too big but big enough for a child to fit through, Mike's role was to hang from the roof of the house and make his way up and into Jake's room and then report back to Sarah once the mission was complete.

Mike gathered up his rock climbing tools and used the chimney as a brace and made his way up, their temporary house was a very quiet neighborhood so climbing up the walls of the house would only garner a few people staring while walking or driving by. Once he made it to Jake's window he realized it was locked so he started tapping on it. Jake was in his bed but when he heard the tapping he made a confused look towards his window and saw his brother hanging in front of a second floor window.

"Dude let me in!" Mike screamed to Jake as he approached the window. Jake hurried to let his little brother in his room.

"Dude what are you doing?" Jake asked

"Mom wouldn't let us talk to you so I climbed the house to get up here" Mike said proudly

"Why didn't you just come in the door?" Jake asked still confused

"Mom locked it from the outside"

"She can do that?" Jake said as he made his way to his door and tried it out for himself, he was a little shocked that he was trapped.

"So dude? What happened at school?" Mike asked, anxious for an answer, Jake just grunted loudly as he fell onto his bed.

"Come on tell me!" Mike demanded

"Fine, you know those two goons that were picking on Mark earlier this year?"

"Yeah, we showed them" Mike said as he chuckled but then stopped. "Wait were they picking on you?" he questioned Jake whose eyes widened

"No no, its just they were talking a lot of crap about us and they wouldn't stop so we got into a fight…" Jake tried to be as basic and simple as possible

"You took them both on? Nice but why you? After we got into a fight with them before they backed off." Mike questioned, Jake paused for a few second, obviously trying to think of an answer

"I don't know, maybe it was just cause I was alone" Jake answered, Mike didn't buy it

"Jake, your father is home!" Kate called up to him while coming up the stairs.

Mike's face panicked as he ran for the window and tried to set up the rock climbing harness, he hard the lock on Jake's door moving so he went out the window and tried to slowly make himself out of video from the room. He was going down using the harness to go down slowly when suddenly it broke and Mike fell 15 feet onto some bushes. Jake ran to the window, worried until he saw Mike who motioned that he was ok. Just then his door started to open so he slammed down his window and jumped on his bed.

"Whats up?" He said to him mom nonchalantly

"Whats up? Your punishment is going to be whats up in a few minutes when your father gets up here" Kate said in a strict tone

"Honey, where are you guys?" Tom called to her with a confused tone, Kate rolled her eyes.

"We are in Jake's room, I told you we need to talk" She called back to him. She listened as she hard multiple doors opening and closing as Tom could not remember which was Jake's. They sat still for a few seconds until Tom finally made his way to the correct room.

"Hah found ya, so whats up?" Tom questioned; unaware about the seriousness of the situation.

"Your son here was just suspended here for 5 days, for fighting" She explained, Tom's face dropped as he stared at Jake.

"Again? What is with you, I thought we were done with all of the misbehaving" he scolded

"That's what I said" Kate chimed in

"What do you have to say for yourself?" asked Tom

"Im sorry but it till wasn't my fault" Jake tried to convince them

"Oh this should be good, so tell us Jake, why is it ok to just go around and beating people up?" Tom asked in a sarcastic tone.

"I didn't just go up to them and beat them up!" Jake screamed

"That's what all the other students said, that you just walked up to the two boys, started talking and threw a punch" Kate reminded him and informed Tom.

"I don't get it, this isn't like you and it sure isn't going to be you. You are grounded indifferently" Tom stated

"Again!" Jake screamed

"That's what happens to kids who like to fight, you get punished. That means no game, no TV, no playing around, and no skate park." Tom added

"For how long!" Jake questioned

"Until we feel that you have learned a lesson" Kate finished for Tom as they both exited the room. Jake just sat on his bed with a confused look on his face. He was the first of the Baker's to be grounded alone and this serious, Jake had no idea how it happened.

"Jake's grounded!" Mike screamed to the rest of the family as they brought him back up the vent from Mark's room to the second floor.

Everyone was questioning how come, when Mike finished the story they were all wondering why the punishment was so harsh, when Mike, Jake, Kim, and Jessica all fought those two kids they were grounded but everyone was acting up and when they were grounded it was for that long and they weren't that serious about it.

Both Sarah and Mike knew that what Jake was telling them and telling their parents wasn't everything, they weren't even sure what they have been told was the truth but they were going to find out some how.


	4. Deep Inside The Vents

Jake has never been grounded by himself before; nobody has so he had nobody to talk to, and nobody who knew what he was going through. He was forced to stay inside his room all day while his brothers and sister were at school, the only time he was able to leave was to eat and go to the bathroom. It was worse when everyone got back from school because he could hear them having fun weather it be outside playing foot ball or apple smear or playing hockey in the halls. It was much easier when nobody was around because it was quiet and he didn't have to think too much about the fact that he was grounded.

"I have got to get into Jake's room" Sarah said to Mark, Henry, and Mike.

"You can't the only way in is in the front door, or through the window but nobody knows how the do that except for Mike and its still dangerous." Said Mark

"There _is _a way in, through the vents, they lead down to the second floor to almost every room" Sarah explained.

"You can only hear from all the rooms its connected to, there are metal gates and fences blocking from anyone from actually entering a room." Mike said with a disappointed voice

"Well then we are just going to have to fix that aren't me" Sarah said with a grin as she held up a power drill.

"When someone dropped down into the vent there is a gate stopping them from going any lower so in order to hear a rooms conversation someone has to be lowered head first by a harness, all we have to do is lower you down Mike and you could unscrew the bolts and then we could get into the main vents throughout the entire second floor!" Sarah exclaimed.

The planned seemed to make sense to everyone involved so they decided to give it a try, they handed Mike the drill and hooked it up to a long extension cord and lowered him down. In order for him to see, Mike had a flashlight taped on the collar of his shirt plus Mark shining once from above.

"Ok stop" Mike called out to Henry and Sarah who were holding the rope attached to Mike's legs. They listened as they heard the drill sound but there were loud clanking sounds instead of the smooth sound from when a bolt is being unscrewed.

"It isn't working!" Mike yelled up to his siblings, Sarah knew what the problem was immediately after he said that.

"Turn the yellow switch; you have to be in reverse mode!" Sarah called down, soon enough they hard the drilling sounds again and the sound of a bolt falling to the vent floor.

"oohh, thanks dudes!" Mike called up as he continued to pull out the rest of the bolts.

"Ok they are all out, now how do we get this gate off?" Mike questioned.

"Just grab onto the sides and pull" Mark called

Mike began digging his fingers into the side of the wall and soon had the right side of the wall out and was pulled up by Henry, Sarah, and Mark.

"What now?" Henry asked

"Now, lower me down so I can get into the main vents and screw out the one that leads to Jake's room, then Ill jump down, talk to him and climb back up, no worries." Sarah said confidently

Sarah was lowered down by her arms this time because since the gate was gone she could be lowered farther and be right side up when he hits the ground and is able to move to the side vents. She peered down into every vent hole but as she tried to get into the vents on the other half of the hall there was another gate that had to be unscrewed. While unscrewing the gate Tom was walking by in the hall and stopped for a moment when he thought he heard something. Mark was on the bottom of the staircase to keep watching on the hall when he saw his father stop. He ran up the spiral staircase and tried to talk into the vents as loud as he can without screaming for Sarah to stop drilling.

The rope was still tied to Sarah's back so when she did not respond to their warnings they yanked on the rope which pulled her back and caused her to thump on the vents. Tom lifted his head, and thought to himself that it was a rat and left the hall to make plans to get rid of them. Sarah went back to the vent that led the Mark's room and questioned what was going on, they agreed that when one of their parents was coming that they would tug on the rope connected to Sarah's back.

Sarah continued to drilled away on the gate and pushed it to the side once it was loose. She peered in a couple more rooms when she spotted Jake's room. He was lying in my bed face down into his pillow. Sarah stuck the drill onto the first bolt and began to pull it out; Jake heard the noise and looked around, confused. He looked up and saw Sarah who made a sign for him to remain quiet. She finished pulling out all of the bolts when she removed the gate and prepared to drop into Jake's room. Sarah put her legs through the hole and jumped down into Jake's room and landed on his bed.

"Whats up" Sarah greeted Jake with a proud smile on her face

"Sup" Jake said in a low voice, still looking at the vent hole where Sarah came out of, wondering how and why she came all the way through the vents.

Sarah moved to Jake's electronic heater and turned it on, it made a fairly loud noise, not ear drum bursting noise but loud enough so that the others would not hear their conversation.

"So whats been up with you, and don't feed me the same garbage you have been telling Mom and Dad" Sarah demanded. Jake made his way to the corner of his room, farthest away from the vent so he could make sure nobody else heard, and sat down on the ground.

"When Mark ran away you said you fell on your skateboard, I didn't buy that for a second. Tell me what really happened" Sarah questioned

"Well you know when Mike and I told you about those two losers who were picking on Mark a while back?" Jake began, Sarah nodded. "Well when I was on Vermont Street I saw a group of guys and I heard someone call my name, I skated over there pretty slowly and I noticed that it was them. They had 3 other guys with them; they were bigger than me, stronger than me. Before I could even think about skating away one of them grabbed my shirt…." Jake trailed off

Sarah wanted to hear more but by what Jake has told her and by the angry expression on his face she already knew what had happened.

"Jake you should have told someone, you could have been seriously hurt" Sarah lectured Jake.

"I can handle it, it is just two cowards who think they can hide behind a wall of protection, when they are alone they aren't so tough." Jake said

"Who cares if you can handle them, if they come around with those other guys again they could really hurt you and unless Charlie is with you there isn't a thing you could do about it" Sarah exclaimed.

"Since when do you suggest backing off from anyone? You never do" Jake questioned Sarah

"Because I know that the fights and situations I get myself into are easy to get out of but haven't you noticed that the older you get that there are more people to get by. I know what I get myself into but you have no clue what you're doing, you have to know when you're over your head." Sarah explained to Jake who was just sitting on the ground with arms around his knees and an angry expression on his face.

"When you go back to school just stay away from them and they will leave you alone, from what you have told Mom and Dad it is obvious that you went up to them looking for a fight and if you keep knocking on the Devil's door long enough he's going answer dude!" Sarah said in a high voice as Jake looked up to her.

"Fine, but what if they come back to me?" Jake questioned

"Then walk away" Sarah answered. What she was saying made sense to Jake, it was strange for him to hear Sarah talking like this, he was unaware of how wise she could be, he has never seen her this serious before, not even when looking for Mark.

"Thanks" Jake said as he got up.

"Hey no problem bro, just stop with all of that garbage so that we can go boarding again" Sarah advised.

"K, I should get back up, see ya" She said as her and Jake hugged. She climbed up onto Jake's bed and jumped up and grabbed the edge of the hole, she struggled to pull herself up so Jake pushed her feet up to help her up the whole.

"Thanks!" She called as put the gate back on the hole leading to Jake's room, she left the bolts off because putting them back on would be too much of a hassle and she wasn't sure if she would have to make another trip to his room. She left all of the gates off, having them gone would be convenient if anything else were to happen in the near future.


	5. Another Solution

Every day seemed to go slower and slower for Jake, he thought that the first day would be the worst and that the long days lone would just take some getting used to, he was wrong. With each passing day he was getting even lonelier, he was able to see everyone at dinner but he wasn't able to talk to them outside of 'Can you pass the salt?'.

He has tried on multiple occasions to convince his mother to at least let him watch TV, that being alone for so long was punishment enough but she wouldn't budge. It was obvious that she didn't like punishing her kids and it was obvious that she felt sorry for Jake but he knew that to prevent him from doing anything else so wrong again that she had to be hard on him.

It was now Thursday afternoon, his suspension was almost over but he was still unsure of how long he would be grounded but he was just glad that he would be able to return to school. He never thought he would actually glad to go back to school but even if he still had to sit in class from time to time at least he got to talk to someone in the halls, lunch, or even in class.

Jake was listening to his radio on a low volume so that his parents didn't hear it when he heard someone calling his name from outside. He looked out of his open window and saw this it was Mike who wanted him to come out side. Jake just said in a loud whisper 'I can't' but Mike kept insisting.

"There is a summer street hockey tournament going on around the block, 2v2. I NEEEED you." Mike pleaded. Jake looked around his room and then back at his brother.

"How am I going to get out?" He asked. Mike then grabbed something from off the ground that was behind him and held it up smiling, it was a rope.

Jake wasn't afraid to propel down the window and to the ground but he sure wasn't a fan of it, Mike would have slid down the rope in less than 5 seconds but Jake wanted to be cautious and use his feet to gently lower himself down from the roof. Once down Mike handed Jake his hockey equipment bag to him and they headed out of the front yard slyly in order to prevent themselves from being seen by either Tom or Kate.

Once they were out of the yard and the large bushes were blocking anyone from in the house' view they relaxed and began to casually walk down the street and toward where the hockey tournament was being held. They turned the corner in the direction of the tournament when Jake's stomach dropped, 'of course this is my luck' Jake thought to himself.

Walking to the tournament themselves, Chris and Frank Wheeler turned around to see Jake walking with his younger brother Mike by his side. Each of them smiled as they turned around and walked toward the Baker brothers.

"Hey it's those door knobs from school" Mike said allowed to Jake, he just closed his eyes and wished that his brother wouldn't have said that. He wasn't afraid to fight but he really didn't want to.

"Funny, what did you bring him as protection Jacob?" Chris sneered as him and his brother walked closer to the Bakers until they were less than a foot away from each other.

Jake's face showed his anger but he starting thinking about what he and Sarah talked about and after a few second he calmed down and relaxed himself. Mike was ready for a fight but he didn't even think of the fact that if they got caught fighting that Jake would be in way more trouble than he was for sneaking out AND fighting again.

Jake put his hand across Mike's chest to back him off. Jake just shook his head and said "It's not worth it" as he turned Mike around and headed home.

"Of course we are" One of the boys said right after and before Jake and Mike could even get a few feet, one of the boys pushed on Mike's back with tremendous force and he crashed jaw first to the ground. For the first time in Jake's life, he saw Mike on the ground and didn't get right back up.

Jake bent over to check on his little brother, Mike's chin was scraped pretty bad and his mouth was bleeding a lot, Jake was afraid that his jaw might be broken. Before Jake could even turn to face Chris and Frank he was stomped on the side of the head to the ground and kicked in his spine once by the other brother. The two pounded each other's fists as one said "You're not going to get rid of us just by walking away" and headed off to the hockey tournament.

Jake didn't even pay attention or care about what they didn't to him; Mike was on his knees with tears in his eyes. He was trying his best to hold them back as he hasn't cried since he was a baby. His mouth was slightly open as the blood dripped out of it, Jake helped him to his feet and held Mike's shoulder with one arm and dragged both of their hockey bags with the other.

The two brothers approached the front yard and as they did they were spotted by Lorraine who was doing her hair on the front porch.

"Oh my God what happened?" She asked with a worried expression. She looked over and Mike and at his mouth. "Oh my God I think his jaw is broken" She said in a loud voice while bouncing up and down not knowing what to do when suddenly the loud voices attracted Kate out of the house.

"Whats going on…..Jake! What are you doing outside…Mike! What happened? Jake what did you do?" Kate said with panic as she ran over to Mike and Jake who released his arm from Mikes shoulder to guide him to his mother.

"We were going to a hockey tournament when these guys came and pushed Mike down" Jake explained to his mother.

"What were you doing out of your room? Your grounded remember?" Kate scolded while looking at Mike's mouth.

"He asked me and I didn't think we would run into them, we were just going to play hockey and come back I swear" Jake said

"Because of you sneaking out your brother is hurt, Im going to take him to the hospital but when I come back you are in so much trouble!" Kate screamed while getting a cloth for Mike's mouth.

"But Mom…" Jake started but was cut off

"Tom!...Tom! I have to take Mike to the hospital" She screamed to Tom

"What? Why?" he questioned while walking towards the front door

"Well Jake decided to sneak out with him and on the way to some hockey match apparently another kid pushed Mike and he fell on his jaw" She said glaring at Jake who was sinking in his shoulder now.

"Ill take care of Jake" Tom told Kate as she nodded; she led Mike to the car and then drove off to the hospital. Before Jake could even say a word his Dad looked at him with the angriest face he had ever seen before. "Room, NOW" Tom commanded, Jake ran up stairs to his room but when he tried to open the door it was locked. He struggled with the handle and kicked the door, when he couldn't get it open he put his back to the door and slid down and hid his head in his arms as he hugged his knees.

Tom took a few minutes coming upstairs and in that time almost all of the kids walked by Jake to try and get him to talk but he just kept his head down and didn't say a word, he had the entire house worried about almost as much as they were worried about Mike. Half of them didn't know why Mike went to the hospital and seeing Jake the way he was acting was not making them feel any better.

Tom eventually made his way upstairs to Jake's door and cleared his throat. Jake looked up to see his dad looking over him with the door keys in his hand, he got up and rest his back on the side wall while he waited for his dad to open the door. After he did he just pointed inside the room, motioning for Jake to get in there, and followed him in. Jake sat the same way on the bed as he was in front of the door; he had black ski hate over his eyes and his head hidden in his arms. Tom paced around his room thinking of something to say.

"Do you have any idea how stupid you acted today?" Tom questioned

"I didn't know that we would run into those guys, I didn't do anything intentionally dangerous" Jake said in a low voice

"Im not talking about you two running into whoever pushed Mike, Im talking about you deliberately sneaking out after your mother and I have specifically told you that you can not leave this house." Tom said in a high voice, Jake still had his head buried in his arms.

"Look at me" Tom said in a low voice as Jake raised his head and took off his hat, his eyes were red, it looked like he was crying but he wasn't crying because he was sad, he was just so angry with the two boys who hurt Mike.

"Why would you disobey us like that?" Tom asked sympathetically, Jake didn't answer.

"What are we doing wrong?" Tom asked, still no answer. Tom flushed his face through his hands and sighed. He just shook his head and walked out the door.

Not even two minutes later Sarah walked in and shut the door, she ran to his bed and demanded answers.

"It was the two guys from school, I did what you said. I didn't say anything bad about them I didn't antagonize them, all I did was hold Mike back and turn backwards to walk away and before I could think Mike was on the ground and when I went to go help him I was kicked in the head and kicked on the back. Walking away doesn't wok, even they said so." Jake explained.

Sarah didn't know what to respond with, she was hoping that if Jake would have walked away then the bullies would have just assumed they won and left Jake alone but why attack them with their backs turned? "So what are you going to do?" Sarah asked

Jake walked over to his dresser with a hateful look in his eyes, he went inside his sock drawer and pulled out a knife.

"Jake! What are you going to do stab them! You can get rid of your problems by killing them!" Sarah said with surprise and panic in her voice.

"Im not going to use it" he said calmly.

"But if I have it and they see it then it might scare them away so that way nobody will have to fight" Jake said in a low voice, he sounded confident it would work.

"Jake that's not even legal, where did you even get a knife that big?" Sarah questioned.

"When you and I went hunting with the Pearson family last summer, their dad said I can keep it as a souvenir. I thought it was cool but I never thought Id actually need it." Jake explained

"You're NOT going to need it though" Sarah insisted.

"Im not going to hurt them or anybody, if this is what it takes to get them off my back then fine, whatever it takes." Jake insisted but then paused for a few seconds. He looked at Sarah's face and knew what she was thinking. "Are you going to tell mom and dad?" He questioned.

"…no" But I really think I should, I can't promise that I won't." Sarah warned. With that said Jake realized that if this gets any further his life is going to be wrecked. If he actually needs to use the knife or even if his mom and dad knew he had a knife his life would be over.


	6. Isolated

The next three days weren't any different than the ones prior, in fact they were worse. Even though Mike vouched for Jake that it was his idea for Jake to sneak out, Tom and Kate went a little overboard. They discussed among themselves ways to punish Jake but nothing felt severe enough, they tried to think of anything short of a paddle to the behind. They were thinking of things to take away and figured something a little different; instead of taking away a thing or some other random object they decided to take away his room. There was one room that the kids didn't even notice when they moved in, an empty room in the basement and so Tom and Kate thought that a few days away from his own bed may work. Jake wasn't trapped down there or anything, the same rules applied for when he was in his room, he only left to eat and go to the bathroom.

Jake didn't like the basement room at all, it was cold and muggy and he didn't even like the smell of it, the rest of the kids thought it was way overboard that their parents made Jake sleep down there, it really put fear into there eyes not to do something bad.

Jake was only allowed to take his clothes out of his dresser and bring them into a spare that they brought down to the basement room; Jake slipped his future protection blade in with the clothes without his parents noticing. Before he didn't think it was anything special to have it, sure it was cool but it didn't really mean anything but now whenever he thought about it he felt guilty. He felt that having the knife was doing ANOTHER thing wrong and that it just added onto the list of things he has been screwing up lately, he regretting ever bringing it up to Sarah because weather he decided to show it to the Wheeler's or not it wouldn't matter if she told Tom and Kate.

When Jake woke up on Monday he completely forgot that he was going to school, when everyone was at breakfast Kate noticed that he was absent and rather going to the basement room she went to Jake's usual room but when she tried to open it she was denied because of the lock they placed on it. It saddened her that it has come to moving her son to the basement and again she felt guilty but she had to make sure he would stay out of trouble, especially with him returning to school.

Jake was eventually awoken by his mother and his climbed up the stairs to eat breakfast, the rest of the kids still gave him strange glances like they wanted to say something but were not able to, because it was true. After the lot was loaded out of the van and to the school and Kate drove away all of Mark, Kim, Jessica, and Sarah bombarded him with questions, statements, sympathies, and other commented that he couldn't even understand.

"Can we just not talk about it; I'm finally out of the prison so Id rather just forget about it while I'm away from it" Jake said in a calm voice.

Jake took a few steps and separated from the other with Mike.

"Dude, whatever you do, don't even look in the same direction as the goons we saw last Thursday" Jake warned Mike

"What? Why? After what they did? They broke my jaw, look I cant even open my mouth all the way! Their dead!" Mike said with a determined look. He was right though, he had a few wires connected to his jaw to keep it in place while it healed and when he talked he slurred a lot of the words, he was right to be angry but Jake knew what that would get him into.

"Dude, for me can you please just never even talk to them again, if anything else happens to you or me I am going to be toast and whatever those kids do will only get worse" Jake pleaded to his younger brother. Mike just looked trying to make up his mind.

"You know you should have told me that those bruises you had on the night Mark ran away came from those guys" Mike said quietly

"How did you know? Sarah?" Jake questioned

"No, I finally pieced it together" Mike said

"Well since you DON'T know what really happened let me tell you, it was those two cowards that beat me up, it was 3 their 3 gigantic freak brothers that did all the damage." Jake informed Mike whose face showed his frustration.

"I don't get why you didn't tell anyone, not even Charlie, he could have helped" Mike questioned

"I didn't think of asking Charlie and besides I didn't want to get anyone else involved, I thought I could handle the situation by myself but it is proving to be a bit of a drag and has gotten way out of control, I'm sorry." Jake apologized to his younger brother for the injury he sustained courtesy of the Wheeler boys.

"You know, you shouldn't be such a loner all the time. The only people you even kind of talk to is me and Sarah but to anyone else in the world family or not you stay shut off, that's what's got you into this bogus mess dude" Mike said. Jake looked in the sky, he couldn't believe that even Mike had better advise than what he was doing, was he really that stupid?

"Yeah well ill try to change that sooner or later, I have to get to class, see ya bro" Jake said as he walked away from his brother. He knew that he didn't like confiding with other people, he just never felt like it was necessary or even safe to tell anyone what is really going on in his head. Sarah and Mike were the only ones in the entire world he completely trusted, he knew that they wouldn't tell anyone else something if he told them to but when Sarah said that she might it really had him questioning.

But now he was questioning not weather if telling Sarah was the wrong decision but weather not telling anyone else was the wrong decision, he decided he would give this open mind philosophy a chance in the future but he had no idea how to fit it into the little scenario he has himself in.

When walking up to the school he spotted Chris and Frank out of the corner of his eye, they were bullying some other kid who was reading against a tree but instead of interfering or even thinking about getting involved he made a quick left and entered the school from the side door. He convinced himself that it wasn't running, that it was just smart considering that anymore trouble would probably mean military school or something crazy like that.

The day went by fairly smooth, aside from having to explain his story multiple times to his friends at school it was rather care free and it was a pleasant change of scenery from what he had been dealing with for the past weak.

After the day had ended Jake, Henry, Mark, Kim, and Jessica were already at the spot where their mother would pick them up, she wouldn't arrive for a little while longer but they had nothing else to do so they figured why not. While waiting for Jake saw out of the corner of his eye the Wheeler boys walking along the side walk that would eventually lead them right to him. He decided it would be best to stay with the rest of his family as it would be difficult for him to get in trouble with more people.

The two boys were approaching the Bakers and every step they took Jake was pleading he didn't even know who that nothing would go wrong and that they would just go away. The boys were now only a few feet away from the small Baker group and they instinctively politely moved to the side so that they could pass. As the Wheeler boys passed they had their eyes on Jake and he had his eyes on them. When they passed him Chris gave Jake a little tap with his shoulder and smiled as he continued walking, he was able to sense what Jake was thinking and knew that Jake wasn't going to do anything.

Once the Wheeler boys were gone Jake calmed down, Sarah and Mike had showed up and it was only a matter of minutes before their mother would pick them up from school, when she arrived she was relieved that Jake was there with no apparent problems. When the van door opened Jake practically jumped inside, wanting to get as away from the scene as quick as possible.

The van ride on the way back was loud and noisy as usual, everyone talking about anything mildly significant that happened in their day but Jake just stared out the window. Kate looked in the rear view mirror and saw this; she almost shifted her concentration from the rode just pondering what Jake was thinking and why he was so quiet. She hadn't noticed this before but Jake had always looked out that same window after every day of school, he had not once talked about his day or bragged about something cool that happened to him at a day of school, he always kept to himself. She never noticed because he never did anything to really stick out to her, he had his own identity to her as the skater kid but she never noticed how isolated he kept himself; she began to worry about it.

Once home Jake went to his basement room without even being told, he just walked inside the house and opened the basement door and gently shut it behind him. Once dinner was made he walked up the stairs, ate his dinner, and calmly walked back down. His attitude was completely neutral; there was no interaction, no emotion towards anything. She couldn't tell if he was just trying to stay out of trouble or if there was really something the matter with him, the more she thought about Jake's behavior the more concerned about her son she became.


	7. Being By Yourself

The entire week went by surprisingly very solid for Jake and the rest of the Baker family, he still had to abruptly avoid the Wheeler boys but it still worked well enough to keep him out of trouble for the time being. Jake didn't even mind that he had to sleep down in the basement anymore; sure it was cold due to the weather as it was starting to snow but his electronic heater got the job done well enough where he was relatively warm. Jake just wished that he was able to go outside during the day or interact with his brothers and sister but he didn't dare bring up lifting the punishment to his parents, he knew that he was still on thin ice.

When Jake got home from school he usually went to the bathroom real quick and then headed down the basement stairs to his temporary room, he was beginning to enjoy the silence. He could still hear samples of the uproars and chaos that was going on upstairs but it was muffled so for the most part it was peaceful which greatly satisfied Jake.

When he first went downstairs after school he would usually just lay in his bed and think about his day, his mind would often wander to things that could happen, how his temporary peace with everyone could all fall to shambles with one wrong move on his part or on the Wheeler boys but those were also the times he realized how important staying in line was, he didn't want to admit it, even to himself, but being sent to basically live in this basement was actually working Jake wonders. Just being down there for a night would have driven most of the other kids nuts but for Jake it was the perfect spot, a nice quiet place where he could think to himself.

When Jake was done thinking or he got a craving to actually do something he would use one of Gunner's old balls and threw it against the wall to play catch with himself or he would throw it against the wall and imagine that he is a goalie in the NHL making save after save. He would throw the ball against the wall and it would quickly bounce to wherever he bounced it to, he would grab it with his hand and quickly threw it hard back at the wall and made another save.

One day Kate quietly walked down a few steps to check up on Jake and caught him doing this and she smiled, that was the Jake that she knew he was and the Jake she wanted him to be. She wanted him to act this way in front of other but when there are others present he would keep his emotions to himself but when by himself he has an energetic imagination, it made her sad to see that he didn't express it to the world but it made her happy to see that he was still a kid.

By the time the next Monday came there was snow on the ground on just walking around became even more complicating, Kate suggested that Jake would be able to go back to his old room if he was too cold but he insisted that he was fine.

The first two days of the week went along without incident but on Wednesday the Baker's van wouldn't start in the morning, the kids quickly ran to the bus stop where they barely made it before the bus left without them, the sudden rush of kids on the bus made the driver question weather these kids even go to the kids he's going to.

Jake didn't think about it until half way through the day during lunch, he was talking to his friends when the subject about a rock concert was brought up. Jake was forced to eliminate himself from possibly going on the account of he was grounded but while listening to his friends talk about the possibility of them going and how they would get there he realized how he would have to get home. The buses only ran for people who lived far away and the Bakers lived close enough to where the school claims they could walk though it still took a while to get there.

The problem wasn't the weather but just the walk home, if it had been 80 degrees and sunny out it wouldn't have made a difference in Jake's situation, he there was still a possibility of running into the Wheeler boys. After school that day all of the Baker kids waited at the front door of the school together to walk home at the same time, Henry, Sarah and Mike all have after school activities of their own so they stayed behind. Jake left with Mark, Kim, and Jessica together as they slowly walked home. Most of the wide walks were shoveled so it made walked a bit easier but the entire walk home Jake kept an eye out for anyone that might be suspicious looking, especially the Wheeler boys.

After about 10 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of nothing to worry about Jake let his guard down and enjoyed the walk. Kim and Jessica were complaining about the long walk and Mark felt indifferent towards it but Jake liked looking around at the snow covered cars and the snow covered trees, he thought it looked really cool.

The next day though did not go according to Jake's plan, at the end of the school day he readied himself with Jessica, Kim, and Mark to leave the school but on the way home they decided that it would be quicker if they ran home so they devised to have a race. Jake not caring to get home any quicker just let his three siblings speed off ahead of him while he enjoyed the scenery by himself.

About half way on the trip home Jake heard someone call the name 'Baker' from behind him, he turned around and much to Jake's displeasure was Chris and Frank walking right towards him. He thought about running but he knew that they would chase him and he didn't much feel for running so he decided he was going to try and talk his way out if this situation.

"Haven't seen you in a while Baker, we missed ya" Chris 'greeted'

"Cant say I missed our little meetings" Jake answered, he wasn't sure if he regretted saying anything at all or not.

"Id say you're afraid of us" Frank chimed in as they both laughed together, Jake said nothing as he didn't want to get any more involved than he was now.

"Upon discovering this newly acquired power over you Baker we decided to take our advantage and actually make something of it, so uh how much money you got on ya?" Frank questioned, Jake may not have wanted to get into a fight with these guys just to prove who's stronger but he wasn't going to let them take a single cent from him.

"Whats the matter? Whoring yourself out for money at night not going so well anymore?" Jake teased. '_Ah shit, what did I just do' _Jake thought to himself. The two boys looked at each other as Jake readied himself for an attack.

The boys looked at Jake and peered down to his feet, Jake didn't dare keep his eyes off of the boys standing in front of him, he had to know what they were going to do and when they were going to do it. Suddenly they both faked an attack at Jake as Jake flinched and stumbled on the ice below him, trying to catch his balance Jake wobbled a bit until Chris tackled him from behind as Jake landed face first inside a pile of snow.

Instead of letting him up and hitting Jake the Chris stayed on top of Jake as Frank held his head down in the snow. Jake couldn't tell if they were just doing it as a joke to make him suffer or they were trying to kill him but after more than a minute in the snow Jake was having a hard time breathing and he was beginning to panic. His legs began to flail around franticly as his arms tried to reach for something to grab. His right arm found the leg of Chris who was on top of him so he led up and connected his fist the Chris' crotch who rolled off of Jake. Frank still had his hands on the back of Jake's head but Jake now with more leverage and two free hands was able to free himself and began throwing a massive punching barrage onto Frank's face.

Frank had taken enough punches to be out of commission for a little bit so Jake tackled Chris as he was running towards him and grabbed onto his torso. Jake lifted Chris up a few inches and dropped him on his back, instead of staying on top of Chris to punch him Jake got up and as he stepped over Chris he landed a kick right to his forehead as he sprinted home. He didn't bother to look back and didn't even notice that his ski hat was gone; he just wanted to get home as quickly as possible.

When Jake arrived home he slammed the door shut and met with his mother who was at the front door.

"So what took you so long, your brothers and sister got here a while ago" Kate asked with mild suspicion

"They wanted to race here but I decided to walk" Jake said, out of breath

"By the looks of it, it seems like you have been running" Kate noticed

"Well I caught myself and realized how much later I was going to be than the other so I ran to cut the time down a little" Jake answered, he stared into his mother's eyes who seemed to accept the answer as he slowly walked down the basement stairs and onto his bed.

Jake sat in his bed and cursed at himself. He had decided earlier that he was going to start talking more about what is going on with him and he just left his mother completely in the dust a few seconds ago. He was very disappointed in himself; he didn't realize how much of an instinct it was to brush off everyone's questions about what he ever does. Jake just lay down in his bed with his eyes shut and tried to think of new ways to actually let people know what he is doing.


	8. The End Of Innocence

Thursday night there was a snow storm, all of the Baker kids were anticipating the schools to be closed, they even went to bed on time so that they could sooner wake up and watch on the news that school has been canceled. When Jake woke up he walked up the stairs and joined the family to watch the list of schools that would be closed for the day. When it was close to the naming of their school all of the kids moved their heads closer to the television but only half of the kids were happy by the end of the news broadcast. The school had decided to shut down it elementary branch of the school but not its Jr. High and High school branches due to exams. This meant that Jessica, Kim, Mark, and Mike were all going to be able to miss school while Jake, Sarah, Henry, Lorraine, and Charlie all had to attend.

When Jake saw that he was going to school he was disappointed but when he found out that he was going to have to walk home alone, his heart sank. Jake decided that before school even started he was just going to run home and not look back no matter what.

While Jake was getting dressed he heard something hit against the dresser wall, he moved around his clothes and saw the knife in the drawer. He remembered when he told Sarah that he was going to use it to scare off Chris and Frank but he opted not to use it last time. This morning though Jake felt scared, he remembered having his face buried in the snow, no light, no air. He was actually scared for his life so Jake looked at the knife, swallowed hard, and put it in the side pocket of his baggy pants.

With so few people in the van heading to school it felt very awkward, not nearly as loud and with this sudden absence of their siblings Jake, Sarah, and Henry really did know what to do but wait to arrive at school.

Jake was fairly confident about his exams today, he wasn't a genius or anything like that but he felt that he knew enough to get at least a descent grade. As he worked he kept his mind on school rather than the trip away from school but half way through his last exam he looked outside the window and saw it snowing, but didn't think anything of it but he looked again and it was gradually picking up. Jake wanted to decide weather he should be happy that there is so much snow or upset because since there was a lot of snow then that may mean a run in with the Wheeler boys would be more unlikely or it could be that regardless of the weather he would have to deal with them in the snow.

Jake caught himself thinking about those type of things and continued his work, time was almost up and even though Jake was almost done he didn't want to cut it that close. When the bell rang to signify that the exams were over with Jake had just finished, he knew he didn't ace it but he still felt content with his work. As the exams were collected he looked out the window again and saw a minor blizzard he was going to have to get home fast.

Jake gathered up his belongings at his locker and then made his way to the front door, it was strange going home alone but he just tried to shrug off the feeling as he put on his ski hat. He opened the door to be smacked in the face by flying snow everywhere; he exited the building and closed the door behind up and walked quickly to the path of his house.

Not even half way to his home he was getting nervous, there was no way he could run with this much snow and this much ice, he resisted the urge to look behind him but step after step he just kept getting a feeling that he was being followed. A few more steps, he couldn't help himself as he stopped and lowly turned his head around to get a view from behind, there was no one. Jake couldn't see very far, the snow was like a wall which made it hard for him to see even a few yards in front of him.

Jake continued his pace towards his home when he saw two figures standing side by side in his path; he stopped dead in his tracks. They were too small to be adults and with Jake's luck he knew who it had to be. He considered running back but the two people began making their way towards him, Jake was actually scared because he didn't know who they really were and if they were who he thought they were then he was in big trouble.

The two people came within two yards of Jake and he could tell that it was Chris and Frank Wheeler standing before him. The duo didn't say a word but suddenly Frank lunged himself at Jake who also charged at Frank. The two were trying to wrestle each other to the ground but with Chris standing by all he had to do was swipe Jake's feet from under him and he would slip on the ice, and he did just that. Frank was now on top of Jake throwing a series of punches as Chris landed a few kicks to his face as well.

Jake was able to get one of his legs free so his positioned it in front of Frank's chest and he pushed him off. Chris grabbed onto Jake's back and tackled him face first to the ground, Jake felt a gash on his eyebrow as he squirmed away from Chris' reach. Chris got up and ran full speed at Jake but he saw it coming and landed a strong hockey check onto Chris' chest as he fell backwards head first onto the ice and went unconscious.

Frank saw this and tackled Jake, throwing punches left and right, they each threw each other into the ground one after the other. They both used the other as leverage as they made their way to their feet but then both slammed each other into the ground at the same time and they saw something fly against the snow, it was the hunting knife.

Frank lay on top of Jake as they both stared at the large knife for what seemed like a long time, suddenly Jake saw Frank reaching for the knife and in a seconds reaction he too grabbed for the knife. Jake didn't know of Frank's intentions with the knife, weather he would throw it away or use it to kill him but he didn't like the idea of the kid lying above him wielding a knife.

People from across noticed 3 shadows wrestling around in the snow and at first assumed the tree boys were playing around but when Chris slipped on the ground it garnered some attention. People from across the street looked on as the shadows wrestled around; nobody really cared enough to check the situation out. One lady wanted to investigate but every time she tried to cross the street she would be surprised by bright lights whenever she made it a third of the way to the other side of the street. It was unsafe to drive in this kind of snow but crossing the street was the dumbest thing anyone could do, especially on a busy one like this.

Both Jake and Frank had a hand on the knife; they each tried pulling it away from each other. Both of the boys were screaming as they wrestled for the knife but Jake gave it one more pull with all of his strength and got it in his possession but when he pulled it away from Frank the momentum caused his to cut his arm pretty badly. Frank was now afraid of what would happen as Jake had the knife in his hand he used the butt end to hit Frank in the head with twice who fell over off of Jake.

Jake tried to get up but before he even get to his knees Frank made a lunge at the knife and in a panic Jake lost control of the knife as it lay pointed upwards as Frank jump on top of him.

Blood started pouring onto Jake's face and neck who lay on his back with a terrified look in his eyes. Frank was lying on top of him with the knife angled at 90 degrees into his heart. Jake looked in Frank's eyes as they twitched, he couldn't' do anything but scream, he was terrified. Jake pushed Frank on the side of him as he inspected the knife wound. He didn't know what to do so he pulled the knife out of Frank's chest as Frank just lay on the ground motionless, lifeless.

Jake was on his knees and shaking next to the body, his hands could no longer hold on to the knife as it dropped in the snow next to the body of Frank Wheeler. He wiped his hand across his own face and smeared the blood; he saw it on his hands and began to shake uncontrollably. He was too scared to even think about what to do, what was the right thing to do. The people across the street were making there way over to investigate the screams. Jake too scared to think, only knew to run as fast as he could.


	9. Destination: Safe Haven

When the people arrived at the bloodied body of Frank Wheeler they saw Jake's shadow running away through the snow, among the people was a police officer who ran after the boy. He screamed at Jake to stop but when Jake heard his voice he ran faster, afraid of what might, afraid of what he already did.

Jake cut to the right in a different direction from his house, the police officer had a hard time seeing Jake run and tried his hardest to keep up, he called on his radio on the whereabouts of the boy he was chasing. Jake was running towards the subway station and ran down the stairs, he approached a soon to be departing train but has he ran up to the doors they were already sealed shut. Jake pounded on the doors but the trains started to move, Jake panicked a jumped on the back of the train and moved to the opposite side of the police officers view.

When the officer ran up to the train he was out of breath.

"The suspect has entered the Midland station train headed to Chicago, make sure nobody gets off that train one its there" The officer commanded over his radio as he ran back up the stairs and out of the station.

Jake had no idea where he was going but he knew that he couldn't hold on to the back of a train for the entire time, his fingers were sweaty, his hands were still shaking, if there was an opportunity to get out he would take it. Just then Jake saw a maintenance door with a crack of light coming form the inside. Jake tried to carefully jump off of the train but he was going faster than he anticipated and as his feet touched the ground his upper half of his body was thrown forward as his face landed on the ground. Jake rolled over after the impact as his back and left arm made contact with the rail which was burning hot, he let out of scream and jump back up to his knees, there was now a severe burn on his back and arm.

Jake got to his feet and slowly made his way to the door, his body was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth were chattering, and he had no idea where he was. When he arrived that the door he closed his eyes as he reached for the handle and prayed that it was open, surprisingly it was. When he opened the door there was a small light in the corner of the room, it was much darker than it looked from the outside. Inside the room was nothing but a few machines, a table in the middle of the room with 2 chairs, and a sink.

Jake sat down at the table and tried to collect his thoughts, he wiped his hands over his face but when he looked down at his hands he saw them blood stained, Jake now afraid again ran over to the sink and rubs water over his hands and face and began to cry. He collapsed onto the ground and lay in the fetal position, the amount of sorrow and pain let Jake light headed as he passed out.

A police officer was sent to the Baker home to inform the family about their son, Kate answered the door and she was informed that Jake was involved in the death of another boy. Kate's line of thought just froze; the police gave her a special number to call if he were to return home, Kate took the card with the number on it with a blank stare. Kate made her way to the couch of the living room as the officer left and just stared blankly into nothing. The other children became worried about what was wrong when they noticed that Jake was not home yet, each one of them feared for their brother's safety.

The sound of another train passing by woke Jake up, when he looked around he was confused about where he was, he had hoped that the recent events were a dream but when he realized he was awake tears began to fall down his cheeks. Jake brought himself to his feet and exited the room to another; there was a series of dark halls with a small light that didn't light up half of each hall. There were small exit signs and arrows pointed in a certain direction, Jake wanted to go home back to his family so he followed them.

When Tom and the rest of the family arrived home Kate told Tom what the officer had told her but they were unsure about what to tell the rest of the kids. To prevent them from asking too many questions they just said that Jake ran away.

"Then we should go look for him" Kim and Jessica both suggested

"We can't" Kate said in a low voice

"Why not, when Mark ran away we all went out searching for him and we found him in a few hours" The two questioned

"This is….different, besides the weather there is something…different about this. Now everyone go to bed." Kate ordered, the rest of the kids signed with confusion, they wanted to search for their lost brother Jake and were puzzled at why they couldn't go look for him.

Jake made it to the exit door, he opened it and it led to a dark ally with absolutely no light except from the stars. The narrows passage between the two buildings seemed to drag on forever; Jake saw light on one of the ends and decided to walk towards it. He tripped over lots of things over and over; he could even see what he was walking onto.

He tried to walk fast but after one step something caught his leg, someone or something was holding onto his leg.

"Hey kid, come here" someone said in the dark, they had a tight grip on his ankle; Jake began to whimper like a scared dog.

The man began to pull hard but Jake screamed and kicked forward, he began to run but only made it a few meters before he tripped over something in his path, he heard shuffling from behind him, like someone was coming after him so Jake quickly got up and sprinted for the lighted street ahead, away from the darkened ally. Jake heard heavy foot steps and but he wasn't sure if they were his or someone else's he just kept running.

Jake ran faster as he made it out of the ally and put on the sidewalk, the momentum of how fast he was running carried him into the street. Jake's eyes widened as a bright light approached him, he couldn't move, he just froze. Suddenly he heard a screeching noise as the vehicle came to a halt, the driver cursed at him as Jake slowly walked out of the road and onto the side walk. The driver cursed again as he sped off, Jake's heart beat was so erratic that he thought he was going to pass out, he looked around at the area around him and recognized it, and he was only a couple blocks away from his home so without thinking twice Jake sprinted in his home's direction.

Jake arrived in the front yard of this home, he stood at the door and reached for the door knob, it was locked. He was about to ring the door bell but froze, his heart skipped a few beats when it suddenly hit him about what had happened, his eyes turned red and as he let his hand fall back to his side he used what little strength he hand to push forward onto the door bell.

Kate who was sleeping on the living room couch with Tom heard it and jumped up, she and Tom ran to the door praying it was Jake or someone with news about her son. When she opened the door she looked down at Jake with his watering eyes, blood still stained his neck as he stood there looking terrified up to his parents. Kate bent down and hugged Jake and brought him in the house, Tom wrapped his arms around them both as they embraced their son, he threw Jake's ski hat to the ground as he closed his eyes and wished that nothing else would happen to their son but he knew that something had to be done.

Upon receiving the warm hug from his parents Jake began to cry uncontrollably, tears flowed from his eyes as his face was red, he was so sad at what he had done and the warmth of his parents enabled him to let himself go. The other children heard the bell and the noise and crept down the stairs but they all stopped before they could get to the stairs. They watched from the balcony as Jake had returned and was crying like they had never seen before. Aside from a drops in his eyes Jake has never really cried hard either since being a baby so everyone seeing him the way he was made them afraid for him. He was usually so strong and never showed his fear or weakness and seeing him in this state made them feel weaker and they were beginning to feel the seriousness of the situation.

After hugging with their son for a few minutes Tom glanced at Kate was now crying as well, he knew what they had to do, Kate reluctantly nodded and Tom released the hug and kissed his son on his head and made his way to the kitchen to make a phone call.


	10. Awaiting a Testimony

Kate continued to hug her son; she rubbed her hand over Jake's back which made him wince in pain from the burn mark. Kate took off his dirty hoodie and walked him to the bathroom; she saw blood dripping down his arm due to the cut from the knife. In the bathroom she rook off his shirt and witnessed the burnt arm and back of Jake's body and the gash that blood was pouring out of. She gasped when she saw these injuries and began to clean up the wounds a bit.

Kate wrapped Jake's torso with a bandage for his back and almost his entire right arm for the burn and the cut. As Jake walked out of the bathroom led by his mother he was seated on the couch, Kate went up stairs to get him another shirt and hoodie. The other children were told to either stay upstairs or go to their room but Sarah ran down the stairs and met Jake on the couch with tears still in his eyes.

"Jake oh my God what happened?" Sarah asked frantically

"I messed up Sarah….I messed up" Jake said in a cracked voice as he looked to the ground

"You got into another fight with those kids? What happened?" Sarah asked again, Jake just stared at the ground as he watched a tear fall from his eye and to the ground.

"Sarah go to your room" Kate commanded

"But mom I want to know what's…" Sarah complained but was interrupted before she could finish

"Now!" Kate said in a bold voice that cracked half way through, Sarah knew that she shouldn't push it any further and obeyed her mother.

Kate handed Jake another shirt and a black hoodie, as he was putting them on the doorbell rang, Tom went to go get it and when he opened the door there were two police officers standing on the porch, the site of them made Jake hug his mother and cry some more. The officers informed them that Jake had to come with them so Kate hugged her son deeply as she led him to the door, Jake was terrified to go with the men but Kate assured him that everything was going to be alright.

The rest of the Baker kids looked on in awe, they couldn't believe that their brother was actually be arrested and after catching a glimpse at all the blood stained bandage wraps around his body they were extremely worried and curious to what has happened. They looked out of the window and watched their brother being loaded in the back of a police car; he looked back to them outside the back window as the car drove off.

Jake tried to stop himself from whimpering but tears still rolled down his eyes as he watched all the places they went by as the two police officers drove to their destination. After a while they arrived at a juvenile holding facility. Jake was led in the building by the officers and was led into the holding cells. Jake looked inside each room he passed on the way to his, every one of them looked much older than he was and much more violent. Some were screaming at the police officers and when Jake looked inside the rooms many of them smirked and laughed at Jake's red eyes and terrified expression.

When Jake arrived at his room he stepped in as the officer locked the door behind him, the room was small and very bright, and there was nothing in it except a small bed and a toilet. Jake lay down on the bed and tried to fall asleep as fast as he could but he couldn't, his heart was constantly beating so hard that he could hear it. Jake just sat in the corner of his bed and hugged his knees and looked up at the ceiling, wondering what would become of him.

When the people on the street of the incident found the body of Frank Wheeler they were in shock, they thought that all this time there was something this serious going on right in front of them and they hardly lifted a finger to do anything about it. When Chris woke up after slipping on the ice and hitting his head he was in tears, he could not believe that his brother was no longer alive.

When Chris was taken home after being questioned he had no idea how the incident happened but he knew that Jake Baker had ended his brother's life. He became filled with rage and was dying to find a way to get back at him. The emotions of rage and sadness mixed together created a strong hate for Jake as Chris lay in his room crying. Their entire family was morning the loss of their lost family member.

Chris thought about what he and his brother were doing to Jake and the Baker family, he thought about he treated everyone in their school, he and his brother would bully anyone who was in their way, he contemplated that that was the cause of this dreadful moment. They had intentionally approached Jake Baker looking for a fight, not knowing themselves how far they would have taken it, when he thought about it he still wasn't sure. He began to think about how he and his brother held Jake's face in the snow for that long of a time and thought that maybe it was too far, that maybe the threat of death became apparent once that action was made, for that night he just lay on his back in his dark room and thought about how things could have happened and how everything will happen.

Many witnesses were available to be interviewed, a common answer was that the Wheeler boys approached Jake as he was walking home and they began to fight, every one of them expressed how they were unaware of how serious the matter was at the time and tried to keep themselves out of trouble even if there was no threat of it. It was unclear who even brought the knife to the fight, due to all of the blood, both of the boy's hand prints on the knife, and the weather obstructing even more tests it was almost impossible to tell. There was only one person who knew where the knife came from and who brought it, Sarah.

Sarah read in the paper and watched on the news as the story unfolded, days passed since the incident and most of the children in the house had an idea of what happened and insisted that it was an accident which was being stated by many new reporters. Jake was the only one with the correct knowledge of where the knife came from and the intentions of using it but nobody could get that information until the trial. Sarah dreaded that Jake used the knife voluntarily, she wasn't sure but he thought back to the Jake she knew, and she knew that he would never intentionally kill someone no matter who it was, she became confident that it was an accident.

Many of the reports confirmed that it was a 2 on 1 attack on Jake Baker which would mean the use of the knife may have been necessary had his life been in danger but the fact that there was a hunting knife used makes things even more complicating. The legal length of a pocket knife was 4 inches; the blade was more than double that so if Jake were to be exposed as the bringer of the knife he could face trouble for having an illegal knife and creating the danger himself.

The trial of Jacob Baker was set to take place in a mere five days, in five days the testimony of both Jake Baker and Chris Wheeler would be revealed and weather the killing was intentional, an accident, or in self defense would be apparent. Most of the Baker's were thinking that it would be self defense, the fact that the Wheeler boys were bullies was no secret and so them jumping Jake and him having to defend himself made sense. Sarah believed that as well but was wondering weather Jake would even confess to bringing the large knife and risking even more trouble, she just didn't want Jake to go to jail and hoped that whatever happened it ended in the most minimal punishment to Jake.


	11. A Sound of Thunder

The date of the trial had arrived, the Baker kids wanted to attend to see what really happened with Jake but Kate forced them to go to school, she knew that all those kids inside one court room would only be asking for chaos. Tom, Kate, and Nora all attended the trial and on the Wheeler's family the parents of Chris Wheeler along with his three older brothers and parents showed up to the trial.

The courtroom was silent as the people slowly walked in; there wasn't really tension but just curiosity. Chris Wheeler walked in with his family, he was told to sit in the front row because since he was there and conscious through major parts of the incident he would no doubt be called up to the stand to explain how everything happened from his point of view. He looked nervous, like he wasn't sure himself what happened, he had the looked of a scared child but he knew what he had to do.

Upon arriving to the trial Jake was appointed a lawyer, someone that would help prove his innocence. Jake had recollected his story to the lawyer and he was confident that Jake's action would be qualified as self defense but due to him bringing the knife there could be a completely different situation.

Jake was one of the last ones to enter the court room, he was led in by a man through the front doors. Jake slowly walked down the middle aisle with the look of a scared puppy; he was nervous and sad at the same time. He did not like the fact that he had to say what had happened on that day he dreaded the most, he wanted it to just go away but in order for that to happen he had to convince everyone that what he did was not his fault but that's where another problem lied. Deep down Jake did feel that what had happened that day was indeed his fault. He brought the knife which was in his hand as it killed Frank Wheeler, just thinking about the situation made Jake feel like a murderer, he wasn't sure what should become of it but he was terrified to find out.

Jake was approaching the front bench with fear in his eyes as he passed the first row of seats when Chris Wheeler stood up and screamed. Before Jake could even look over Chris pointed a gun at the side of Jake's head and pulled the trigger. As soon as he clenched the trigger on the gun time seemed to freeze, everything he had done up to now was going through his mind.

Upon hearing of his brother's death Chris was overwhelmed with sadness and anger, he couldn't believe that something he thought was so petty such as bullying some kid could end up so wrong. The night of his brothers death he locked himself in his dark room and tried to cool his head off, collect his thought and maintain the situation but the more he thought those words the angrier he became. He held out his hands in front of him, illuminated by the moon light through his bedroom window and he noticed that he couldn't stop shaking. He was so angry that he couldn't contain himself, he wanted to calm himself down and get rid of this anger but it never stopped.

Chris went from wanting to calm down to contain his anger to wanting to do retaliate and get revenge in order to satisfy his own anger, he began thinking of when and where, he already knew who. He knew that his brother had a bit of a mean streak and had connections with the wrong people so Chris knew that if he was going to find a solution he was going to find it in their room. He waited for his brothers to leave and then he searched each other their rooms one by one, he found nothing in the first two rooms but in the third there was a metal box with something heavy in it. Chris didn't know where the key was so he used a power drill to drill through the lock as he witness a gun already loaded within his grasp.

Chris debated for all of 2 minutes weather to take the gun or to just leave it where he found it, he thought that sine there was already a hole drilled in the box that there was no turning back and that what Jake Baker did to his brother, his family that that was the moment where their was no turning back. He was convinced that Jake had sealed his fate at the moment where Frank's heart stopped beating so at that moment Chris grabbed the gun and hid the box where he found it and vouched to avenge his brother.

At the court room Chris couldn't have guessed that he would use the gun there, in front of all those people, in front of his family and in front of the Baker family. Everything was moving in slow motion, he looked at Jake whose head was slowly ducking into his shoulder, his eyes sealed shut, the bullet only centimeters away from Jake's temple.

He watched everything happen in slow motion, he saw the bullet make contact to Jake's skull a s he cringed, he stood there with the gun still pointed forward as he watched Jake's bloodstained body fall to the ground and at that moment he was back in reality.

Everyone screamed and moved away from him, he didn't know what to do and out of panic Chris began shouting waving the gun in a circle, herding the people together.

"Stay away from me! Stay away!" Chris shouted, multiple officers had their guns drawn on Chris but they hadn't fired yet, he had just killed another boy and that withdrew on firing. It is amazing what other people will do when facing a child with a gun.

"Don't move! Don't move!" Chris shouted, he had no idea what he was doing, he didn't know what was going to happen, and there was no plan, no definite outcome, only fear.

Chris saw the faces of everyone in the courtroom facing him, filled with fear and sorrow and it was because of him. Chris had never imagined that this would happen; taking a life could feel this way. Suddenly Chris sensed something on his foot as he glanced down carefully he saw a stream of blood from Jake's body make contact with his foot. He heard his own heart beat so hard that his whole body quaked.

He looked back up at everyone with confusion as he moved the gun from the crowd of people to his own head.

"_Chris!"_

"_No!"_

"_Wait kid don't!"_

"_Chris!"_

"_Chris!"_

"_Please no!"_

Everyone pleaded for him not to in seconds but Chris refused to hear them, the voices echoed in his head as he moved his finger up and down the trigger of the gun and as he closed his eyes the court room echoed with a sound of thunder.


	12. Jacob Baker

Everyone pleaded for him not to in seconds but Chris refused to hear them, the voices echoed in his head as he moved his finger up and down the trigger of the gun and as he closed his eyes the court room echoed with a sound of thunder.

Everything happened so fast, those involved questioned weather what had just happened was real, something so horrible seems to surreal to have happened. To those who witnessed the tragedy and those who had to be told were affected greatly, how do you tell the siblings of the deceased what had occurred? How do you tell children that their brother is gone forever?

Kate tried to convince herself that what had happened in the courtroom was a dream, that she would wake up to her twelve children smiling at her but that never happened. Every time she closed her eyes she would imagine herself back at the courtroom, watching her son walk down the courtroom aisle, she enjoyed those seconds because it was the last time she could see her son alive. But a few more seconds she watched as the other boy stood up with malice and confusion in his eyes, point a gun at her baby, and pull the trigger. Every time she would jump at the site of the gunfire towards her son, she watched herself standing with her husband being showered with their own son's blood; she saw the terror in her own eyes.

The boy with the gun panicked, shouting things but she couldn't hear, after the gunshot all she could hear was it ringing in her ears and a thunder like crash as her son's body fell to the floor. She kept her eyes on Jake the whole time but once she looked up she saw the boy holding the gun to his own head, everyone yelled for him to stop, even Tom but she didn't. She just watched as the boy ended his own life but as soon as that bullet contacted his own skull her heart quaked as she was filled with a tremendous sadness, that's when she would open her eyes again, back to reality.

Tom and Kate were unsure of how to tell their other children that Jake would no longer be with them but they knew it would be no easy task, it was nearly impossible for them to accept it so how could they expect their children to take it any better. Tom orchestrated a family meeting with Kate, Nora and himself leading the way. Everyone was eager to find out what happened to their brother, when they would be able to see him again, they bombarded Tom with questions but he didn't know how to answer, suddenly the children saw tears forming in his eyes as they all became silent.

"Jakes…..gone" Tom said weakly, everyone just stared at him, not understanding what he meant by 'gone'

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Charlie asked

"There was an incident at the courtroom, Jake…didn't make it" Tom said in a cracked voice as Kate held on to him.

"Your joking, you have to be jo….aww sh…" Charlie wept as he stood up trying to hold himself back from cursing or breaking anything.

Sarah, Lorraine, Henry, Mark, Mike, Kim and Jessica began to shed tears. Kyle and Nigel did not understand, they had a idea but that idea was so horrifying that it couldn't be true.

"So where is he?" They asked simultaneously

"He's dead! Jake's dead!" Sarah screamed as she ran up to her room crying.

Things didn't get better for a while, there was no way to shift our minds form the situation, nobody wanted to. They chose to bury Jake in Midland, his home. The funeral of Jacob Baker was hard on everyone, nobody wanted to say good bye to their brother. How could someone die so young? It didn't seem fair to them, and it wasn't. During the burial nobody wanted to say good bye, nobody wanted to see a 13 year old boy lowered into the ground, never rising but that was the reality of the situation.

As everyone stood in front of the tomb stone they recalled moments, moments that had just happened of them spending time together. He was just by their side and in one instant he was gone, they all said a prayer in the name of their deceased brother and bowed their heads to Jake's tomb stone.

* * *

Jacob M. Baker

1990-2003

We will remember

Not the words of our enemies

But the silence of our friends

* * *

It took months just for the Baker family to get through a morning without morning over their brother or spending moments saddened by what once was. Bye he end of the school year things started returning to normal, minus the fact that there was missing one Baker but the children started to have fun again and smiled more. Kate and Tom didn't want Jake to be forgotten and they knew he wouldn't but they knew that it was important for the family to get along without him.

The Wheeler family took the deaths of two of their son's hard as well, their brothers felt like they aided in the destruction of their family. They knew what they did was wrong but if they had known that the situation would have escalated to this level then they wouldn't have even given their actions a thought. The entire family was relieved to hear that the Baker family was going back to their old home, not because they hated them but because it brought back unwanted memories that they hoped would recede.

When the Baker family found out that nobody had purchased their Midland house everyone was ecstatic, as they arrived to the house they were eager to get back to their old rooms. They all flooded out of the family van as they arrived and everyone sprinted to their old rooms that would soon be their new ones.

Sarah jogged up to the house and moved herself up the stairs and to the door of her room and then it hit her, she shared a room with Jake. She stood frozen outside of her closed door and slowly reached for the door knob, as she made contact with it her whole body quaked as she reminisced moments of her deceased brother. Sarah gripped onto the handle tighter and twisted it.

The door opened slowly as Sarah peered in and as she did her eyes widened, she looked on the other side of the room across from the door and at Jake's bed and there she saw him, Jake, sitting on his bed with his ski hat on and his brown hair hanging out the back and a skateboard on his lap. He was working on it for a couple seconds and looked up at Sarah and smiled.

"Jake" Sarah whispered but as she blinked she was now looking at the empty mattress that used to be Jake's bed. Sarah's face dropped as she slowly walked inside the room with tears filling in her eyes. She made her way to the empty mattress and knelt down before it, she moved her hands across the mattress before she laid her head down on it in her arms as she mourned her brother Jake.

* * *

Thanks For Reading,

_Ughster_


End file.
